Big dimension difference between Sketchup and Layout

Sketchup is kicking my ass lately! This is my 3rd post in a week. Something is happening that I haven’t seen in many years of using Sketchup and Layout. My model in Sketchup is 30" wide but in Layout it measures 21-3/16". Other viewports on my Layout page from the same model are dimensioning correctly. I tried deleting the viewport and bringing a fresh one back in but still no luck. I’ll attach a video so you can see the issue.

[https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/rzpzg0nucddr8wlyoqjqe/Screen-Recording-2025-05-19-at-12.48.14-PM.mov?rlkey=zq7b4gxpubjc0lru6foobdisj&dl=0]

I can’t see what I need to see in your video. Send me your LO file, Steve.

Why don’t you have Auto Scale enabled for the dimensions?

I just sent you the Sketchup and layout files Dave. Be gentle. :sweat_smile:

Will do. Hang tight.

It’s page 14 on the layout drawing and the scene is MB X

The LO file opened right to it.

Look at Entity Info with the viewport selected. Note there’s no standard view coming from the scene. That’s because you haven’t set the appropriate Standard view (Left in this case) for the scene.


In SketchUp there’s no Standard view displayed at the top left corner of the model window.

You have the camera positioned at an angle to the faces in the model so when you place the dimension in LO you are dimensioning the projection of the area instead of the actual length. Here’s an attempt at an illustration to show how things were set up in order to get the 21-3/16" dimension.

I set it to the Left Standard view and updated the scene.

Then, after updating the viewport, the Dimension is as expected.


By the way, notice that the dotted line X is now too short because you had drawn it to match the projection of the face.

So correct the scene in the SketchUp model, save, and then update the reference in LayOut. After that you should be able to dimension that viewport and the one below it correctly.

BTW, remember to use tags correctly. All edges and faces should be untagged. Only groups and components should be given tags. I fixed that in your model.


Also purge unused stuff periodically. I purged your file and all this went away.

This reduced the SketchUp model file by 60%. Also remember to purge your LO file once in a while.

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Thanks Dave. A lot to unpack here.

First I clicked on most of the scenes in my layout doc and at least all of my elevation views say “none” under the ‘standard view’ drop down in the Sketchup Model window and I don’t have a problem with things not dimensioning correctly in those scenes. What is the necessity of using one of the standard views? When I set my views I use the ‘position camera’ tool and make sure I’m on axis. Maybe on this one particular scene I got off axis somehow. I’m not sure what the difference is between using the camera position tool as opposed to the section plane tool for my purposes unless you really want to see the slice of a wall section in the scene. The only quirk I’ve seen using the position camera tool for scenes is the hidden lines bug showing from behind the camera when you switch to hybrid mode.

Having said all that I just recreated the problem scene again using both the position camera method and the section plane tool and they both said ‘left’ under the ‘standard view’ tab.
Both scenes dimensioned fine. I guess I don’t understand the whole ‘standard views’ thing.

Secondly, to my knowledge I only create tags for components or groups. How would I mistakenly create tags for just edges and faces? What is the process you used to find the default tag geometry above? Actually from your second screenshot above it looks like you purged components, tags and materials in one shot? When I purged components in my model a window like that did not show up.

Current problem solved but now I’m more confused! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Thanks as always Dave!

That’s entirely possible if, big IF, the camera is positioned very close to perpendicular to the faces you are dimensioning. In the case of the viewport in your video you can see the camera wasn’t anywhere close to perpendicular, though.

It sets the camera perpendicular to faces that are aligned to the global axes.

You might start out on axis but the model isn’t always staying on axis. It isn’t in your MB X scene as we saw. When the camera is set to Parallel Projection and your model is 2D you can’t readily see that the camera has gotten positioned off axis because the edges remain parallel. Here I’ve added a 3D box into your model and moved the camera off axis to the left. You can see the side of the box (dark gray) but that’s the only way you can tell since the rest of your model is flat.

That’s a different thing related to a bug fix a few years ago to correct clipping. You shouldn’t need to use Potion Camera with your active section cut. Just zoom in on the part of the cabinets of interest for the scene and set the Left standard view.

Most likely the geometry got tagged when you exploded groups or components that were tagged. When you explode a tagged group or component the contents inherit the tag. That can be very useful if you are exploding nested objects because the child objects get the tag. If you explode an object to raw geometry, the next step while the geometry is selected should be to go into Entity Info and change the tag to Untagged.

I used TIG’s Default Tag Geometry (from Sketchucation) to quickly go through the entire model and remove the tags from all of the geometry.

Yes. I used another extension by TIG called Purge All which does the same thing as Purge Unused from Model Info>Statistics but it also displays that report of how much was purged.

Maybe it’s easiest if you just follow the intended workflow using the appropriate standard view for your elevation views.

You’re quite welcome.